


Finish The Day Dream

by danvssomethingorother



Series: AU-Verse [2]
Category: The Venture Bros
Genre: AU Rusty, Canon Typical Violence, Implied Drug Use, M/M, college AU Brusty, will be smut later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:40:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18686179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: Moving Dean into his college dorm brings back memories for Brock of an unforgettable summer he had with Rusty many years ago, Rusty however, doesn't seem to remember it.





	1. Prologue

-Present Day-

Rusty was quiet during the car ride, letting the boys talk among themselves in the backseat, only glancing at Brock briefly. Brock didn’t hesitate to put his hand on his husband’s, squeezing it gently.

It had been a hell of a year and it wasn’t about to get easier now that Dean was officially moving out and on his first steps of leaving the nest.

He hadn’t seen Rusty this down in awhile, not in the mood for snide remarks or singing along with the radio, not even quite sulking, just deflated. He hadn’t seen him this sad in months.

“Daddy?” Dean asked sensing his father’s bad mood, “Are you upset?”

“No sweetie,” Rusty said flipping a switch and turning on his biggest smile, “Everything is just fine.”

Brock just held his hand a little tighter, they all knew this was affecting him. He had been trying to convince his son for months to live at home instead of moving on campus, he just wasn’t ready to let go of Dean. He had lost this fight and this was as graceful as he was going to lose.

\---

Stuyvesant University hadn’t changed, only the people surrounding it had Brock noted to himself carrying Dean’s largest box of junk from the car to his dorm. Dean was leading the way, going a mile a minute excitedly to his father about everything that had changed since their time in the school.

Brock let his eyes pause on the large fountain, there was no one mingling around the campus this time of day, most in class Brock would assume. That’s where he always found Rusty, sitting there, his clique of nerds surrounding him as they studied.

That’s where Johnny had left him, that night he almost died of an over dose. Brock stopped in front of the fountain, glaring at it hard seeing his family stop for a moment as well to set their boxes down and sit in the spot their father had almost died. Rusty much more cheerful now then he would have expected.

“Pete and I spent so much time here,” he said almost fondly to Dean who was glowing, resting his head on his father’s shoulder and Hank, not one to stray from affection mimicked the action, all three tipping their heads back towards the statue shielding the mid-morning sun beams from their eyes.

Rusty weaved a tale about a much more pristine college experience then Brock recalled. Rusty had a habit of lying, fabricating things, usually to safe guard his sons from the more moral ambiguous things he got up to, but something was off about the way he was talking. Reading his husband was like a second language only he knew, he had mastered it over years and years of knowing this man.

He had to, Rusty was a mine field of mental health problems and insecurities, if you didn’t pay close attention to where you were walking, he very well could explode. Some mines became dormant over the years, treading over them wouldn’t do much harm but there was always another lying and waiting to go off.

There was no indication Rusty even remembered how much trouble he had gotten into the year before he left. Brock frowned, Rusty not remembering an event like that, no pause in his lies trying to hold back the truth. Him talking about college at all when he usually just pretended traumatic events didn’t occur was strange for Rusty.

He made note to question his husband about it later, for now they would let this be Dean’s day. Let him stay in the spot light and have a pleasant memory to look back on about finally going out on his own. Moving out for the first time, starting the first chapter of his life.

\---

It was half past midnight and of course Rusty was still awake, Brock heard him from their bedroom, his voice could carry when he was frustrated.

He scowled, that little moron promised to be in bed two hours ago and he was still up arguing with his sister in law.

“His room mate was practically having sex with his mascot head! There has to be some dirt on this weirdo!”

There was a long pause, Shelia likely chewing Rusty out calling her again over this, if there was dirt on Dean’s roommate or if he was a danger, she of all people would already know.

Brock rolled his eyes hearing the tell tale thunk indicating Rusty had thrown his phone against the wall.

Brock opened the door before his husband could start throwing things, he had just re decorated his office and he knew it would be an action he would regret almost instantly.

Rusty was sunk in his chair, messaging his temples trying to regain his composer, the calm before the storm, Brock had arrived on time.

Brock wasted no time beginning to message his shoulders, pushing him forward enough to rub his back smiling as he laid his head on the desk and a content sigh escaping his lips as he began working out the tension in his shoulders and back.

“Dean isn’t going to do anything stupid.”

“I know he isn’t,” Rusty sighed out, “But you never know if someone won’t force him into stupid things.”

“Dean isn’t going to do the stupid shit we did,” Brock was testing water, he wanted to know if Rusty was stuck in the past again. He was surprised when he turned a cheeky smile up towards him.

Rusty just chuckled shaking his head, “I barely knew you in college, we hardly got into trouble together.”

Rusty’s memory wasn’t the greatest but there was no way he forgot making fun of him for not being as straight as he was trying to say he was after that night. It was almost like he wasn’t avoiding that summer, it seemed like he genuinely didn’t remember. How could he forget that? 

Forget the summer he had dragged Brock almost head first into this crazy life, introducing him to the crime fighting scene. That summer he went behind his dad’s back to help Malcom become the next Blue Morpho and Don almost killed Brock helping his idiot sons. 

Forget that night he held Brock and made fun of him for maybe not being as straight as he was claiming.

Forget that summer he almost died.  
Something wasn’t right and it ate at Brock the entire night, Rusty slept almost soundly next to him but Brock couldn’t sleep a wink. He was frowning deeper. He hadn’t talked to his father in law in months, but maybe he should give him a visit.


	2. Chapter 2

-25 years ago-

Brock had his heart on never seeing his mom or brothers or their broken down trailer ever again. He was a star player and it was easy to get a scholar ship anywhere, he wanted to be half way across the country. He applied to every school and got lucky enough to get picked up by one in New York of all places.

It didn’t matter to Brock, as long as he was far away from his drunk mom and failure brothers he was tired of being responsible for.

He had never left Colorado, but he didn’t feel any kind of sadness leaving it now. He was never going back and he had decided that. It was quick work moving into the dorm, he didn’t have anything but a bag of cloths.

Walking into his room to find a happy little family was the last thing he wanted that day but that was the first time he met him. The man who would become his world.

It was far from love at first sight, more like annoyance at first glance.

The entire family reeked of wealth. From the mother’s sparkling jewels and Chanel dress to the father who looked ready to go to a Tennis tournament at the Country Club. The older son fit more into the picture, Rusty was never one to look out of place but the younger looked like he was going through a phase.

The younger who he would later learn to be his room mate was scowling at him from the bed, leather jacket and tight pants, red eyebrows half the length of his shoulders. Maybe the eyeliner and black nail polish was there to draw attention away from his massive eyebrows, but it wasn’t working.

His future husband was leaning impatiently against the wall glancing out the window facing the parking lot, dressed more elegantly then his brother in a fresh pressed black suit. Nicely cut short hair, hair dyed black, it would have passed as his natural color if it wasn’t in need of a touch up and his natural red hair that matched his brother’s wasn’t showing in the roots.

“I really need to go,” he groaned towards their father who was frowning at him.

“Impossible can wait,” his father said firmly giving his son a warning look, “You need to give your brother a tour of his new school.”

“Let him go Don,” the woman chuckled resting her hand on the older son’s head, “Mal’s new roommate is here, we should give them privacy.”

The man turned bashful and began fumbling a bit in his embarrassment of not noticing someone had entered the room, his eyes were on his eldest son. He was far from impressed when he first met Don Fitzcarraldo but that was before he learned about how protective he was of his sons. Brock didn’t fear anyone, but when Don was on the warpath, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Rusty seemed far from interested in Brock that day as well, he glanced towards him before his eyes went down to his designer watch and stated again he needed to go. At a look from his father he paused and allowed his father to give him a large hug, whispering something in his ear before Rusty playfully ruffled his younger brother’s hair (making Malcom scowl and punch his brother hard, hissing for him to fuck off, earning a look from his parents) and gave a kiss to his mother before sweeping past Brock without pausing to offer any introductions.

Don had offered his introductions, but Brock didn’t take his hand and wouldn’t properly make his acquaintance until he was assigned to protect his eldest son from himself many years later.

\---

Brock was surprised he found his roommates brother in their dorm more then his roommate himself and when he was there, his older brother was there, taking over their desk space, scribbling away at a blue print.His hair messy and losing more of its dye with each passing day, dress shirt wrinkled after running back and forth from his internship to class then back here to keep scribbling on his designs. 

His designs seemed to be lay outs on gadget designs, shit you would see on Batman’s utility belt, why the frail little nerds were fervently sketching them together. Malcom always whispering in Rusty’s ear what he wanted and always giving his shrill input. 

Brock’s first impression was Rusty was a perfectionist, the more professional of the two brothers, he now knew he was the insane brother. The one who didn’t know when to stop and Malcom was the one who had to be responsible.

“Rus, you shouldn’t be doing that shit here with that jack off always here.”

He heard his whiny roommate hissing to his brother one day as he came back from practice. He was willing to ignore the nerds, he had been doing so for almost two months now but it was getting tiring they were so willing to talk about him while he was usually in the room.

“Like he gives a shit and I can’t do this shit in my dorm, my roommate is so fucking nosy.”

“Do you have to hang up your shit like that??? Anyone can see it!”

“I like admiring my own work,” he chuckled, “Besides you owe me big time, I don’t want to do this shit, this is your thing. If Impossible finds out what I’m doing, he is going to throw a bitch fit. Back off and let me work. I need to get the designs done.”

Brock scowled towards them, slinging his practice bag he had come back for over his shoulder before easily towering over Malcom, making the younger man tense slightly at how close he was to look down at what his brother was sketching out on his graph paper.

“What the hell are you nerds mumbling about?”

His voice was soft but imposing making both brothers tense. Rusty tilted his head up towards the larger man, blue eyes eying him, challenging him to do something. It almost made Brock crack a smile seeing this frail little man giving him a look like that. Almost. 

“Oh, nothing you would understand, your brain might explode.”

Malcom sensed his brother was testing his large roommate, it probably hadn’t been the first time he had done something like this. He had a look in his eyes, he knew he probably would win this fight, but Brock was about to go through one hell of a fight if he wanted to smack his brother.

Brock didn’t care enough to mess with either of them or whatever they were doing and by Rusty’s smile, he suspected that was the case. Malcom was hissing at him for being dumb, Rusty tilted his head back towards Brock, there eyes meeting one more time as he gave him a shit eating grin.

“Nah, he won’t do anything, he doesn’t give a shit,” his smug smile grew as he couldn’t help but add, “Too dumb to even understand it anyway.”

Brock finally cracked a smile at that, he would give the twig one thing, he had a lot of balls pushing someone like Brock like that.

 

When Brock returned from practice later that evening, he scowled seeing Rusty in the spot he had left him earlier but his brother had left for his evening class.

“I’m pretty damn sure you are doing something illegal,” Brock grunted leaning against Rusty’s desk one day. His younger brother was away, it was always easier to approach his older brother without the younger there ready to pounce him.

“Why do it here?”

Rusty shrugged, continuing his sketching, Brock raised an eyebrow at the butterfly designs. It looked like he was sketching a costume now, putting little notes on the side, pointing to specific parts of the outfit. 

Brock yanked the sketch from the man as he pulled it up to admire his work, making him scowl loudly, he read the bottom note before Rusty yanked it back.

Enzo, please follow my designs – TSV

“You are quieter then my roommate,” he finally shrugged, “I don’t want Impossible knowing what I’m doing, he’s always breathing down my back, so here is the best place unless I want to risk doing this in public.”

“Why not just go do this at Daddy’s house?”

Rusty chuckled to him shaking his head, “Daddy would never approve of what Malcom is doing.”

“So what that bean pole is going to go try to stop crime?”

Rusty didn’t respond, sighing loudly, sinking into his seat. He took his glasses off, a nervous habit, he would learn a lot of his habits soon, this was just one of the healthier ones.

“Something like that I guess,” he paused tilting his head towards Brock a smug smile forming that made Brock chuckle, “Do you really care if Mal does stupid shit that could get him killed?”

Brock rolled his eyes, sighing loudly in annoyance as he shrugged, no, he really didn’t care. Let the spoiled rich kids get themselves killed. Brock wasn’t about to lose any sleep about it.

“I didn’t think you would.”

Brock hated how Rusty was about to make him care about the Fitzcarraldo family. How he was going to make him care about him.


End file.
